Two techniques I’ve thought of recently to modify the traditional “look at the top 100 to find targets” link building technique:

1) Use the Google Global Firefox extension to see who’s ranking in different countries. You’ll often find very different results; since most business compete within a defined geographic area, they probably won’t mind linking to you if you’re in another country.

2) Search for your keywords with a typo. The pages that come up will likely still be strong and/or trusted, but they might not even show up in a top 100 search.